Wayne Rooney sparks major debate with controversial take on Neymar during Overlap discussion

Over the past 24 hours, Wayne Rooney has been trending on social media after he made a controversial claim about Neymar during a new segment on The Overlap called 'Unpopular Opinions'.

In this week's episode of The Overlap, Rooney was joined by Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Jill Scott.

As well as discussing whether Bruno Fernandes makes an all-time Manchester United XI, a question about former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar sparked plenty of debate amongst the panel.

To kick things off, Gary Neville introduced the 'Unpopular Opinions' segment before making the following statement: "No Premier League player in history is better than a prime Neymar..."

Roy Keane proceeded to name Rooney, Thierry Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo as players who were better than a prime Neymar, before Ian Wright added Eden Hazard's name into the mixer.

Rooney went on to admit that he's never considered Neymar to be a "top, top player" who sits in the same category as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

"I think he was good at Barcelona, but he was still always overshadowed by Messi," he added.

After some back-and-forth amongst the panel, Rooney made arguably his most controversial statement of the show, suggesting that a prime Mohamed Salah is better than a prime Neymar, although Ian Wright was having none of it.

"Salah is not better than Neymar," he said. "I'll have to fight Wayne for that one."

Fans react to Neymar debate on The Overlap

As you can imagine, the debate around Neymar became a big talking point on X, with plenty of fans having their say on the matter.

One wrote: "The Overlap opinions on Neymar. Just admit you never watched him ffs. Putting him below Salah, Mane & Hazard is a disgrace," and another commented: "There isn’t a single thing in football that Wayne Rooney does that Neymar can’t do at least three times better."

Fans are still debating whether a prime Neymar was better than a prime Wayne Rooney. Image credit: Getty

A third said: "Wayne Rooney was a better player than Neymar. By a country mile. There isn’t one aspect of football where Neymar outshines Rooney. Vision, output, effectiveness, mentality…it’s all Rooney. Some things in football are to be debated, others are straight up fact, this is the latter."

A fourth wrote: "People actually saying Neymar is clear of Wayne Rooney. The world we live in," and a fifth added: "I agree with anyone that says Wayne Rooney is better player than Neymar but rooney also lied that Neymar isn’t a top player."

Roy Keane gives his take on Neymar

Known for his no-nonsense takes, Keane questioned Neymar’s commitment to being a team player.

"Has he ever been likeable? The way he left Barcelona... I think he always gave the impression it was very much about money, and maybe he wasn’t a team player at PSG," said Keane.

"And I know these lads can be selfish — you can be selfish in the right way, don’t get me wrong — but yeah, he was never that likeable, was he? Am I wrong with that?"